MARK - WE WILL IMPROVE

Mark McGhee still has faith in his squad despite Saturday’s defeat at the hands of Rochdale.

The manager believes that his side are capable of getting better results and moving up the league.

He said: “I am still convinced we have a group of players here who will improve, and the results will improve.

“On Saturday if Dave Clarkson had stayed on the field we probably wouldn’t have lost the game, that is how thin the margin is.

“You miss your best players, and at the moment we need all of our best players; Clarkson went off and it cost us on Saturday, so I hope he is fit tomorrow night.

"Today we are training without Tom Eaves, Joe Anyinsah and Clarkson, so there is a few missing who I need to try and get out tomorrow night and pick from as strong a team as possible.

“But there is no reason why we shouldn’t go there and have a go.

“We have to keep going until the injury situation gets better, and we have to hope that it isn’t too late.

“We still have ambitions to get higher up the table, and I still believe we have players here who can get us up the table.

“On Saturday I felt we had a strong enough side to win the game.”

The manager does not think that it is lack of belief that is affecting his team.

“I don’t think there is a lack of belief, I think there is a danger, over time, that if you keep getting the first goal and then losing, that could creep in, but I don’t think it is accountable for why we lost on Saturday.”

And the manager was also happy with the majority of his players and their attitudes on Saturday.

“I had no issues with the majority of the players on Saturday, in terms of attitude and spirit. I think in the first half it was there to be won.

“I thought Neil Etheridege was excellent, I thought Michael Smith was outstanding, but Garry Kenneth had probably his worst game for us, and that is going to happen, and hopefully that is it over with.

“Tom Parkes and Jim Paterson were fine. The three in midfield while they were out there were excellent, but I thought Derek Riordan was disappointing.

“In the first half Tom and Joe gave them enough problems for us to be satisfied. There was a lot of good, but we have to keep looking to improve and not concede in these situations.

“We have got the first goal in the last four or five games and we have to find a way of stepping on from that and getting the second.”

And the manager believes that Port Vale will look at Rovers’ recent form and be ready to take the game to their visitors.

“They will see our results and see us as an opportunity to get three more points. They will look at our team and see people missing and they will be encouraged by that.

“I think we can expect a really aggressive performance, getting at us early doors, trying to score goals early on.”